


Becoming Something New

by A_Plethora_Of_Peters



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Violence, Body Dysphoria, Body Horror, Body Modification, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-19 05:33:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22205998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Plethora_Of_Peters/pseuds/A_Plethora_Of_Peters
Summary: Sometimes you have to come back from beyond the grave to punch your git of a boss in the face before helping him defeat the head of the Institute you work for...(AKA I acknowledge that the TMA guys blew Tim up, but given that I love the poor depressed beans which are the Archival Staff I have elected to ignore it)
Relationships: Jonathan Sims & Everyone, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	1. The Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to Crunchy from the RQ Discord for grammar and Brit-picking this for me! You're the best, my dude!
> 
> If y'all feel I should add any tags onto this, feel free to comment below.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy this romp with me!

_"Jon. I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can… then I don't forgive you. But thank you for this."_

_"You idiot! Do you really think the world will fare any better under the Watcher? You think you're saving anyone?!"_

_"I don't care."_

_"You can't even save_ **_him_ ** _!"_

_"But I can hurt you."_

_"It will not end like this."_

_"You sound stressed. You know I hear the great Grimaldi's in town. You should go see it, cheer yourself up."_

_"_ **_That's. Not. Funny._ ** _"_

_"I know."_

= = = = = = = = = = = = = =

It was only a week out from Christmas when the Avatar of the Flesh and his… people, if you really could call them that, attacked the Institute.

Martin ran immediately to try and get help - he couldn't, because the door was blocked by more of the disgusting, warped, meat things - while Melanie got caught up in stabbing and slicing the ever-living shit out of as many of them as she could reach. 

Which left Basira on her own.

She tried shooting at them but one particularly nasty one with too-long arms attached to a body with far too many legs reached out and easily knocked the gun from her hands. Another that was far too bulky for his tall size reached for her only to scream in sudden pain, jerking back as dark blood splashed across the floor. 

She couldn't clearly make out what was between her and the Flesh creatures. She could tell it was human shaped and had the proper dimensions of a human too. Clutched in its hands was an ordinary axe that it sliced into the creature. Otherwise, it just seemed to boil and writhe in her eyes, never settling on a solid form at all.

"K͌͒ͦe̪̞̝̥̜͟e̩̟͔ͧ̃ͫͯ͡p̞̮̻̝̗͌͊ͥͧ̎ͮ̒͘ ̮͙͆ͩ͝a̓̊ͤͩͤͧ͏̟͓̝̰w͕̯͓̳̘̝̓ͅa̲̩̳̮͊ͦ̇ͨy̫̲ͪͥ ̖͍ͬͅf̞̜̮̬͊ͯ͞r͔͗ͨ͛o̼̰̤ͦ͛ͬm̵͓̻̜͕̟͚̽̐̄ͅ ̶̋́ͦ̈́ͪĥ̘ͬ̈e̻̙͚̼̰̗̅ͪ̚ͅr͚̰̩̟ͮ̀͘!̗̭̼̪̯̌" The newcomer's voice made Basira's ears ring with echoes like a police siren. It was like a choir of people all screaming at varying pitches all at once.

The Flesh creature screamed back wordlessly back and tried attacking it. The being almost eagerly chopped into the mess of limbs and bones and flesh until it stopped moving, and quicker than Basira expected, the Flesh was fleeing. Melanie was close to chasing after them until the being that had protected Basira made a break for it.

Basira immediately took after it, aware that Martin and Melanie were close behind her.

Martin called out as they ran, "I-I think it's headed for the tunnels!" 

Sure enough, when they got to the trapdoor, the lock had been torn away and there were scratches that the creature had left across the floor in its obvious haste to get away. None of the three of them hesitated in following it down into the tunnels. Distantly, they could hear its footsteps moving away from them in the darkness ahead of them. 

Martin pulled out his phone and fumbled to turn on the torch function. Once it was on, they could see the distant back of the retreating figure. Basira held Melanie back as Martin took the lead, hurrying after the being.

"Melanie. I know you want to attack… whatever that is," Basira told her. When Melanie tried to talk back at her, she spoke over her, squeezing her shoulder. "However, whatever it is, it saved my life. So we need to err on the side of caution, yes, but expect it to be… not actively trying to kill us, okay?"

Melanie looked like she was going to stab Basira for a few moments before reluctantly nodding. "Fine. But the second it fucking tries attacking us…" 

Basira agreed with a wry smile. "You can stab the shit out of it."

They quickly caught up to Martin who had stopped in the middle of the tunnel, shining his phone's torch at the being. Basira glanced around, swiftly realizing that Martin had trapped it in a small alcove where the only way out was past the three of them. Knowing that she might never get a better chance at seeing what it was, she peered around Martin at it.

Immediately, she froze up.

It was a mannequin.

A life-sized mannequin meant for art students to pose, all articulated joints and fingers and chipped varnish coating the wooden body parts. Despite the flat featureless planes of its face, it still gave off the impression of staring at them in fear. 

Maybe it was the posture, arms up in a feeble attempt at surrender, axe nowhere in sight.

Maybe it was the faintest movement of trembling, making its joints click softly.

Maybe it was that it hadn't made a single aggressive move towards them despite being cornered.

Basira slowly stepped around Martin and watched the trembling increase in strength and with it the sound of clicking as she approached. She mimicked its pose, hands up at chest level to show there was nothing to be used as a weapon in them. She stopped a couple feet away and slowly asked, "Can you understand me?"

The mannequin nodded once, twice.

Basira nodded back and said, "You defended me from the Flesh. Thanks for that."

Another nod and a subtle change in posture to something still wary but a bit more relaxed.

Basira pressed on. "You are from the Stranger, yeah? So why defend me when I was one of the people that stopped your Ritual, your Unknowing?"

As she spoke the mannequin seemed to flinch at the mention of the ritual, before moving to clasp its hands together in front of itself and moved them from waist to hips as if shaking its own hands. 

"Friend," Martin translated behind Basira "It’s saying 'Friends'..." 

Melanie frowned and suspiciously asked, "Friends? With who?" 

The mannequin lifted its arms up and gestured at the three of them. 

Basira repeated. "Friends with us? Why? We stopped your Ritual."

The mannequin hesitated, shifting nervously. It made a motion against its palm as if tapping on something.

It took them a few moments but it was Melanie who got it first, coming from around Martin to hand her phone to it. "If you break it, I will break you," Melanie warned the mannequin.

It nodded, taking the phone, plastic clacking against its wooden fingers. It quickly tapped out a message that it then played at them with the artificial voice of the phone.

"I would like to show you why I believe us to be friends. I don't want to scare you, though," the phone said as the mannequin handed Melanie back her phone.

Basira hummed thoughtfully before saying, "Will showing us hurt us at all?"

The mannequin shook its head and put a hand to its chest, bowing slightly. 

Basira had to smile. It was obviously swearing that it wasn't going to hurt them. "Fuck it. Go ahead." Melanie snorted, gesturing for it to continue.

The mannequin nodded and, somehow, in the space of a blink, there was Jon standing in front of them. All of them jolted as the Not-Jon spoke, its voice Jon's but also someone else's.

"I am… personally invested in the safety of the Archivist and that includes you all as well." It paused, tilting its head in a way that was uncannily too much like Jon when puzzling over a confusing part of a statement.

Basira was close enough to see that the Not-Jon had different colored eyes. One was a light brown and the other was green. Neither of these were Jon's natural eye color. 

She also noticed that the scars on it seemed off somehow. Suddenly it clicked in her mind. They were mirrored on Not-Jon from how they usually were on Jon.

Martin was obviously confused and shaken by its appearance and asked, "B-But… Why us?" 

Not-Jon gave them a soft look and quietly said, "The Archivist will need all the help he can get to stop Jonah from getting his way."

Melanie frowned at it. "Jonah? Who is Jonah?"

Not-Jon's face twisted in a fury that made them all take an instinctive step back. "Jonah Magnus," It spat the name like a curse, "is a man who has been avoiding the End for decades." It started pacing angrily as it continued speaking. "He's like a cockroach, unkillable and disgusting." It looked at Basira grimly and said, "Not unlike Rainer."

Basira's blood ran cold remembering the darkness that had streamed from Rainer to a kidnapped teen.

Not-Jon nodded satisfied that she got the message and said grimly, "The man you know of as Elias Bouchard is his current vessel."

Melanie huffed. "So if we kill him, he'll just move along to the nearest available host?"

Not-Jon shrugged. "Most likely. I'm not entirely sure. I'm no Eye after all."

"Instead you're a figurative and literal Stranger," Basira said dryly with a quirked eyebrow and a small smile.

That got a startled laugh out of the Not-Jon and Basira frowned. It wasn't a Jon laugh but it still sounded very familiar. Why did it sound familiar?

Martin spoke up then. "A-Are you like Michael, I mean the Distortion, where you have a name that you took from your form, or do you have your own name?"

The Not-Jon frowned thoughtfully before slowly saying, "I… I suppose…" Just like before in the span of a blink rather than Jon, it was another person. 

Basira tilted her head, squinting at the person before them. It had made itself into a young, attractive man in his mid-twenties, of Korean descent. Across its right eye, slicing through its eyebrow and stopping midway down its cheek, was a fairly thick scar. The mark almost reminded Basira of a shrapnel wound. The eye itself was a bright, obviously fake green and glinted oddly in the light of Martin's torch. The same thing went for the skin of its right hand poking out of the University jumper it was wearing.

He smiled charmingly and said in a voice that was familiar but off somehow, "You can call me Daniel."

Martin jumped a bit and blurted out "Daniel? As in Daniel Stoker?" 

Melanie looked at Martin confused and asked, "Who is that?" at the same time that Basira said in sudden realization, "Oh! You do look kinda like Tim!"

The being, Daniel apparently, gave a full body twitch at the recognition. It grimaced and said, "Yeah? He… Daniel is… Sort of me?" It hugged itself and shook its head. "I honestly don't want to talk about it, so…"

Basira nodded along with Martin in agreement. To her surprise, Melanie asked cautiously, "Sooo… If Daniel is your name… What pronouns, if any, should we use for you?"

Daniel blinked at her in obvious surprise. "Oh… Um… I guess he/him works?" He added after thinking for a few moments, "Sometimes if I feel… full of perceptions, I address myself as we/us, sooo there's that?"

Basira nodded. "Okay… So, Daniel, let me see if I got this straight: you want to help us because Jon needs our help and also because our boss is an immortal body snatcher?"

Daniel shrugged, the motion stiffer on the right side than the left. "Pretty much."

"Well, fuck us, then! How do you fight an immortal bloke that hops from body to body?!" Melanie threw up her hands as she glared at Daniel.

Daniel shrugged. "Honestly? I'm not sure. I know that while I can kinda feel the Eye, it has no power over me? So I could poke around the Institute for you, if you want me to?"

Basira folded her arms thinking. Having him investigate for them while they were busy taking statements would be easier. Especially now that both Tim and Daisy were… 

She shook her head and said, "Can you do it without getting spotted?"

Daniel gave her a look and said, "Even if I get caught, I am a Stranger remember? I can lie my way out and no one will be any wiser."

"Then how do we know?" Martin asked in a rush. "How do we know you aren't lying to us?"

Daniel bit his lip, touching his chest. "I… I was still inside the Stranger when Tim…" He grabbed his jumper in a tight grip before finally saying, "I saw Tim blow up our Ritual. Something… the part of us that is still Daniel wants to protect what was important to him." He looked at them with surprising fierceness. "And that means I want to protect you all."

Silence enveloped them after this declaration. 

After a few moments, Martin nodded. "Right. Well Elias- or errm… Jonah is in jail now, but Peter is…"

"In charge, I know." Daniel sighed heavily. He rubbed his face and groaned. "You can feel The Lonely from a mile away…"

Melanie huffed, folding her arms. "Makes sense why he refuses to meet us face to face then."

"Can Elias still See us from here?" Basira asked Daniel.

Daniel hummed, folding his arms. "Yes? But I'd imagine it's harder to do so than before." He nodded to himself before looking at them. "If we are going to get one up on him though, we need to weaken the Eye's hold on you all."

Martin looked worried at Daniel. "B-But how can we do that without killing ourselves?"

Daniel shifted uneasily and slowly said. "Well… there is… one way…"

"One way?" Melanie echoed with a frown.

Daniel looked at them and solemnly said something that chilled them all to the bone. "You have to accept the influence of another Entity on your life."


	2. Familiar, Why Is This So Familiar?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Archival staff now have a +2 in allies and Martin figures something out...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if anyone feels out of character at all!

"Fuck off." Melanie immediately said, turning away as if she was going to walk away.

Daniel was quick to assure her, grabbing onto her jumper sleeve. "You don't have to submit completely and become an Avatar! Just being granted power by an Entity is enough!"

Basira held up a hand to stop him from going any further. "Wait a moment. You mean to tell us that there's a difference?"

"Well, yeah?" Daniel said, swiftly letting go of Melanie when she glared at him. He turned to Basira and said. "It's like upgrading a skill in a video game. The more you unlock, the more powerful you get." He sighed, looking down at his hands. "The problem is figuring out when to stop unlocking more skills."

Basira asked curiously. "Are there any Entities that you think would be best for us to retreat to?" 

Daniel shrugged helplessly. "I'll need to get to know you more before I can make any such judgement calls."

"Do you have anywhere to live?" Martin's sudden question startled all three into looking at him. He had a look of faint concern and there was something else in there. Something Basira didn't quite have a name for.

"Ummm… no? I don't think so?" Daniel unsurely said. "I mean… I could find a hotel or something to crash at…?"

Martin shook his head, took Daniel by the arm, and started leading him back the way they had come. "You're staying here then. The storage room is still all set up from when I stayed here."

Daniel looked back at the other two helplessly as he was pulled after Martin. Basira smiled fondly as she and Melanie followed them. Martin's ability to be kind despite all that had happened to them was really admirable.

She made a face at the mess the Archives was in. Chunks of the Flesh and pools of blood were scattered across the floor. All of the mess lead to a door. 

A bright yellow door with a brass handle.

Melanie frowned at the door and said "That…"

"The Distortion." Daniel said with a faint tone of irritation in his voice. "Looks like it took care of most of the Flesh that was left so at least there's that…"

Basira nodded and made a shooing motion towards Martin and Daniel. "Get Daniel settled in the spare room while me and Melanie start cleaning up this mess."

Daniel protested uselessly as Martin pulled him away from them. Once they were gone, Basira went to the door and knocked lightly on it. There was a pause and then it opened. Basira's teeth faintly ached as a woman who seemed a bit too tall and too thin leaned out the door, impossibly long thin fingers curling around the door's edge.

"H̷e̷l̷l̷o̷ ̷A̷s̷s̷i̷s̷t̷a̷n̷t̷.̷." She said, her words sounding warped and strange as if spoken through a voice filter. "D̷i̷d̷ ̷y̷o̷u̷ ̷n̷e̷e̷d̷ ̷s̷o̷m̷e̷t̷h̷i̷n̷g̷?̷"

Basira said politely. "I just wanted to give my thanks on helping us get rid of the Flesh."

The strange woman smiled at Basira. Her too many and yet too few teeth were long and sharp and the corners of her mouth seemed to stretch off of the sides of her face. "Y̷o̷u̷'̷r̷e̷ ̷w̷e̷l̷c̷o̷m̷e̷.̷ ̷I̷f̷ ̷y̷o̷u̷ ̷n̷e̷e̷d̷ ̷a̷n̷y̷t̷h̷i̷n̷g̷ ̷e̷l̷s̷e̷,̷ ̷d̷o̷n̷'̷t̷ ̷h̷e̷s̷i̷t̷a̷t̷e̷ ̷t̷o̷ ̷c̷a̷l̷l̷ ̷o̷u̷t̷ ̷'̷H̷e̷l̷e̷n̷'̷ ̷t̷o̷ ̷s̷u̷m̷m̷o̷n̷ ̷m̷e̷.̷."

Basira nodded at her and smiled politely back. "We will call on you if we need your help, Ms. Helen."

Helen, as she called herself, laughed, the shrill noise making Basira's head pound, as she nodded and gave a small wave before she ducked through the door.

A door that vanished almost immediately, sinking back into the stone until there was nothing left except for the blood and chunks of Flesh on the floor.

Basira sighed, looking at Melanie, who was eyeing the wall uneasily. "Time to get the cleaning supplies I suppose…"

~0.0~

From the moment the Not-Jon turned into Daniel Stoker, Martin had a very strong feeling about who the Stranger actually was.

He listened to Basira and Melanie question him, asking a question or two of his own. What he quickly gathered from what wasn't said was: the being calling itself Daniel was an Avatar for the Stranger, that he had a closer connection to the Archival staff than he let on, and that he chose to be Daniel because he thought it was a safe form to take.

Martin had a hunch that this meant that he could only be one person. 

He took advantage of the fact that "Daniel" didn't have a place to stay to lead him back upstairs. He was relieved that Basira urged them to go on ahead to the storage room while she and Melanie cleaned up the mess in the Archives. He eagerly pulled "Daniel" inside and as soon as they were alone, Martin locked the door and rounded on "Daniel". "Daniel" looked up at him, startled at the sudden shift in Martin's demeanor as he loomed over him.

"You're not Daniel." Martin said, folding his arms. He tried to channel all his _I'm not mad, just disappointed_ feelings into the motion. Judging from the chastised expression on the Stranger's face, he was succeeding to a degree.

The Stranger composed himself and shook his head as he pointed out. "We already discussed this. I have many names and faces, but Danny's is the one I know that you would recognize."

Martin smiled innocently and asked. "Why call this face Danny to me and not to the others?"

The Stranger froze, panic on his face.

"I think that you are more than you're letting on." Martin said watching him carefully. "I think- I think that you are an Avatar to the Stranger and you were present during the Unknowing." He leaned in close and said in a quiet tone of voice. "I think that you're actually Tim Stoker."

In a blink, standing in front of Martin was Tim as he was before the Unknowing. Worm scars and all. He was even wearing the same clothes that Martin last saw him in though they were now torn, charred, and a bit bloodied. His usually neatly brushed hair was messy and visibly scorched on the right side of his head. He looked absolutely knackered, with dark shadows under his eyes. Eyes that were still mismatched and the scar over his right eye was curiously still there. 

"Congratulations. You caught me." Tim grumbled.

Martin winced at how defeated and bitter Tim sounded. "I-I'm sorry! I just don't get why you feel you need to hide from-"

"BECAUSE I'M NOT HUMAN ANYMORE, MARTIN!" Tim suddenly yelled, startling Martin. His face was twisted in anger and self-hatred. Seeing how scared he made Martin seemed to make all the tension in him leak out like air from a balloon. Soon Tim just looked like an exhausted mess again. "I'm not human." He repeated, quieter now. "Not anymore at least." He glanced to Martin's left and muttered. "Shut up Danny…"

Martin followed his gaze but didn't see anything. "Tim? Is he… do you see your brother?"

Tim was silent for a few moments before whispering, his voice quivering with fear. "Yes… it… the Stranger… it speaks to me as him…"

Martin took in how Tim trembled, arms wrapped around himself in comfort and closed the distance between them. He ignored Tim's flinch and just pulled him close, hugging him tightly. After a few tense moments, Tim relaxed and the embrace was returned.

"I get it." Martin softly said "You… you said that the only way away from the Eye was through another Entity. Of course the Stranger would pick you and speak to you as someone you love that it took."

Tim's grip tightened as he choked out "I-It hurts. S-Seeing him a-and knowing it's not really him…" He gave a watery laugh and swatted half-heartedly at the air next to Martin. "Sorry Danny but it's true."

Martin gently squeezed him. "Do you want to tell the other two?" 

Tim shook his head, his grip growing painful. "No! I-I can't…"

"It's okay." Martin gently said rubbing his back. "You don't have to tell them." He paused before asking "Is there anything you want to tell me?"

Tim was quiet before backing away from Martin and sitting on the cot. "I guess I could tell you what happened earlier from my point of view..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helen's text if you can't read it is (in order):  
> "Hello Assistant."  
> "Did you need something?"  
> "You're welcome. If you need anything else, don't be afraid to call out 'Helen' to summon me..."


End file.
